Mama Bear
by gottabekiddinme
Summary: "You I trust. Them I'm not so sure about." "You said the same thing when you taught me to drive." Sometimes you just need your mom.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers (although I certainly wouldn't mind owning Jeremy Renner).**_

All civilians were supposed to be outside the perimeter, but the dark haired woman was running towards them anyway. Captain America took a breath to shout at her, but the words died in his throat when she picked up an abandoned car – picked it up, as if it were made of cardboard – and threw it at a group of Chitauri.

It took out three of them.

She kept running and came to a stop in front of the group as if she had just done nothing more remarkable than swatting a few flies.

"Is this a private party, or can anybody join in?"

The Captain blinked. "Ah…" she was a good eight inches shorter than him, and nothing about her indicated the strength he had just seen. She was most definitely a civilian, too – her T-shirt, jeans and sneakers were definitely not SHIELD standard issue. "I don't think –"

"Sir, we need all the firepower we can get." Black Widow interrupted.

"But she's a civilian –"

"Barely, Captain." The woman turned to the Widow and Hawkeye. "Code name Unbreakable. I assume that means something to you?"

Both assassins nodded. "Captain, if half the stories we've heard are true…"

"They are."

"Then we definitely want her." Hawkeye finished.

Iron Man was looking intently at her. At least, he was looking. Nobody could see his expression behind the faceplate. "I know you from somewhere, don't I?"

Unbreakable smirked. "It'll come to you." She looked around. "I don't think we have time for further introductions. Orders, sir?"

The Captain nodded. "First off, what can you do?"

"I'm a beta-level mutant." She noted his confusion, ignored it and continued. "I have some basic superpowers – strength, invulnerability, and flight."

"Any weapons?"

She glanced around at the Chitauri. "I can get one."

He nodded. "All right. Barton, I want you on that roof." He pointed. "Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, Unbreakable, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash."

She was gone before Hawkeye finished asking Iron Man for a ride.

They all kept catching glimpses of her throughout the battle; she started out mostly throwing things, but at some point got her hands on a Chitauri weapon and learned to use it very quickly. Unfortunately she had no comm, and so was unaware of the missile situation until she landed between the Captain and Thor. "What's going on?"

"SHIELD ordered a nuclear strike. Stark is redirecting the missile."

"What?" She pointed at the portal. "Through that?"

"Yes."

"But that goes straight through to deep space."

"Yes."

"He'll die!"

The Captain sighed. "He's lying down on the wire."

She huffed. "If you just cut the wire everybody gets through."

He stared at her for a moment, then turned his attention back to the portal. When it seemed that Iron Man wasn't coming back, he gave the order to close it.

Then he heard Unbreakable shriek, "Tony!"

Iron Man was falling, and Thor wasn't the only one to notice that he wasn't slowing down. Unbreakable shot off the ground only to be knocked out of the way by the Hulk, who caught his friend and brought him down to earth. After the faceplate was torn off though, it was Unbreakable who started running her fingers over his face, brushing them through his hair, checking for a pulse at his neck and whispering, "Come on, kiddo, wake up. Come back, Tony."

His eyes didn't open until the Hulk roared. "Please tell me nobody kissed me." She laughed, and his eyes narrowed, then widened in recognition. "Lucy?"

"Took you long enough." She tweaked his nose. "But under the circumstances I'll give it a pass."

"But…wait…you look the same as you did when I was what, eight?"

She laughed again. "Please, do you really think you ever once had a _normal _babysitter?"

"Babysitter?"

She waved a hand. "Later, Captain."

"You ever try shawarma?" They all stared at Tony. "There's a shawarma place about three blocks away. I don't know what it is but I want to try it."

Thor chuckled. None of them had ever realized how sad laughter could sound. "We are not finished yet."

"Right. Shawarma after?"

_At the tower_

"Guy's got cojones." The others glanced at Unbreakable, except for Barton, who kept his eyes on Loki. "What? It takes balls of steel to ask for a drink with a gun, an arrow and a Hulk all aimed at you." She turned to Tony. "I need to make a phone call."

He nodded. "JARVIS?"

"Who may I call for you, madam?"

She raised her eyebrows at Tony. "AI, hmm? Impressive." He grinned at her. "I need a direct line to Nick Fury, please, JARVIS."

Fury answered before the end of the first ring. "Fury."

"Hello Nick."

"Lucy."

"We have a prisoner here for you. On what's left of the top floor of Stark tower."

"I'll send a jet."

"Do that. And Nick," she paused, took a deep breath, and asked. "Where is my son?"

Fury didn't answer right away. Then he sighed. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, Mrs. Coulson."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**_

"Bad news?" Lucy went still. "What do you mean, bad news?"

There was silence on the line for a little while. Fury cleared his throat. "Mrs. Coulson, I'm afraid your son…well…"

The Captain stepped over to her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm afraid he was killed in the line of duty, ma'am."

She blinked. "Killed."

He nodded. She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"Nick, go to the morgue" she almost choked on the word "or the medical bay or wherever he is and you check his pulse again."

"Lucy –"

"Just do it." Tears started to spill over.

"I saw-" They could hear Fury moving.

"I said _do it._"

The line was quiet for a while. She shrugged Steve's hand off and stepped away, but when Tony walked over and hugged her, she hugged him back. "I'm so proud of you, kid."

He hugged her tighter. "I'm sorry, Lucy." She shook her head again.

Fury came back on the line. "Mrs. Coulson?"

She sighed. "Yes, Nick?"

"Would you care to explain how it is that a man who has been stabbed through the heart – a man I _watched die_ – is currently breathing?"

Her grin lit up her whole face. "Let's just say he takes after his mom."

"You mean Phil is a mutant and he never told me?"

"He's never told anyone. I told him to keep it a secret when he was a kid, I guess he listened to me at least once."

"I have to say, it's a welcome surprise. He's breathing and he has a pulse – slow, but it's there. We're moving him to medical right now."

The Avengers just stood there in shock for a moment.

Tony was the first to react, letting out a whoop and drawing Lucy into another hug, this one bone crushing. Clint was grinning, his arrow still trained on Loki, while Thor and Natasha tried to explain to the Hulk what was going on. He seemed to understand, because he smiled and let out a roar that could only be described as happy.

Steve was trying to wrap his head around it.

"He's alive?"

"He is. And this time the medical team's going to make sure he stays that way."

"If they have any questions, tell them to ask me." Lucy called.

The Captain smiled and started muttering about getting him some new trading cards. Natasha laughed and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Nick," Lucy wriggled out of Tony's embrace. "Would you care to tell me exactly who is responsible for Philip's current condition?"

"With pleasure. Your prisoner."

She turned to stare at Loki. "I see. And he is?"

"Loki."

"Loki. The Norse god?"

"The very same."

She nodded and started walking towards him. "Well, Loki, god or man or whatever you are, you're a very lucky one." She stopped in front of him "Because if my son were a little less like me," She leaned over and grabbed him by the collar with both hands "I would let you hit the ground."

Before anyone could react, she heaved him out the window.

After a moment, she took off after him only to reappear just outside, holding him by the collar again. Thor looked about to protest, but before he could, she dropped Loki and dove after him again.

Clint slid his arrow back into his quiver, looking a little disappointed.

"Should one of us, maybe…." Tony paused as Lucy dropped Loki a third time. "Stop her?"

"You want to try?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.

Fury's voice came over the line again. "Someone tell her I want her on the helicarrier for the debriefing. And don't let her kill the prisoner."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Hello again! Updates might be sporadic on this because a) I have no internet at home and b) I don't have this one written in advance. Just a warning.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, Jeremy Renner, or Andrew Garfield. Dangit.**_

Steve walked into the medical bay to find half his team screaming at the personnel. Natasha was standing in front of Clint, yelling at a nurse about brainwashing while Clint stared at the floor, arms folded and shoulders hunched. Tony was denouncing the facilities as inadequate while Bruce, tired and still a little green, quietly agreed with him. Thor simply demanded, loudly and repeatedly, to see the Son of Coul.

Lucy was in a shouting match with the head nurse, who didn't seem to believe that she was in fact Phil's mother. Her fists were clenched and Steve could see her shifting her weight, preparing to start throwing punches.

"Enough." Fury didn't yell, but there was an authority in his voice that shut everyone up. "Nurse Dowsett, this woman is in fact Coulson's mother and is therefore authorized to see him, unless his doctor says otherwise."

The doctor in question slipped out of Phil's room, probably drawn by the sudden quiet. He looked at Lucy. "You're his mother?"

She nodded.

"To be honest, I haven't worked with many mutants. What can you tell me, what are his powers?"

"He's actually only got one. His healing factor is impressive even to other mutants. Not as good as Wolverine's but good enough to keep him alive when he should be dead."

"Yes, there isn't much for me to do except medicate him." He frowned. "Will the painkillers work, or –"

"They work." She confirmed. "Can I see him?"

"He's asleep."

"I don't care."

Phil was asleep for the next week and there was always at least one Avenger in the room. There was some concern about Clint at first, but Lucy informed SHIELD at large and medical in particular that even though she had left the agency, she still retained both her authority and her clearance and Barton was now her asset so back off.

When he wasn't working on his armour or the Carrier, Tony spent a lot of his time in medical with Lucy, making sure she ate and slept and catching up on a few decades of lost time.

"I didn't even know you had a kid. Never made the connection to Agent, either."

"I'm not sure I ever told you my last name. And Philip is three years older than you, what nine year old wants to hang out with a six year old, no matter how smart they are?"

"Still." Tony grumbled, looking at Phil's still face. "Seems like a waste."

Steve found himself in the med bay more often than he was anywhere else. Eventually he stopped leaving whenever Tony came in and starting sketching instead, trying to capture the side of Tony that only Lucy seemed able to bring out. When Steve asked her about it, she smiled sadly.

"You can blame Howard for that."

"Howard?"

"He was a friend of yours, wasn't he."

"Wasn't he yours too?"

"No, not really. I didn't actually know him well." She bit her lip. "He was a brilliant man."

"I know."

"But a lousy father." Lucy gave him a sad smile. "I don't think he meant to be, I doubt he ever deliberately…" She sighed. "Just, don't expect Tony to be like Howard. And don't try to bond with him over Howard either. It's…well it's complicated. There are a lot of feelings involved there. Some of them aren't exactly good."

Steve nodded and turned back to his drawing.

"I understand you were an art student?"

"Well. Art kind of went out the window when the war started."

"A lot of things did." She was giving him a measuring look. "It hasn't clicked yet, has it."

"What?"

"How old I must be." She nodded at the bed, at the son that looked older than her.

Steve paused and looked up at her. "Now that you mention it. But then, I'm a lot older than I look myself."

Lucy smiled. "Sixteen." She blinked, surprised at what she had said. "I mean, I was sixteen. When – when you crashed. I remember the war." She looked away. "I remember you."

He opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a groan.

Lucy darted to Phil's side and took his hand. "Philip?"

Phil slowly opened his eyes. "Mom?"

"Morning, Baby."

He groaned again.

"Hey, you died on me. I get to call you whatever I want. In front of whoever I want."

"Who – " He turned his head and saw Steve. "Captain?"

"Hi, Phil." Steve grinned. "I, uh…I watched you while you were sleeping."


End file.
